Syphilis infections on the rise in Hawaii, especially among pregnant women

By Paul Drewes

Click here for updates on this story

    HONOLULU (KITV) — Hawaii has seen a rise in sexually transmitted diseases, including one that is infecting dozens each year who have never even had sex with an often damaging and deadly disease.

The Hawaii Health and Harm Reduction Center’s mobile clinic takes healthcare into the community, where lately there has been increased testing for sexually transmitted infections.

“We can take blood, swabs and urine from patients and we can test for syphilis, HIV, chlamydia, gonorrhea and pregnancy,” said Rick Ramirez, a nurse practitioner with the HHHRC mobile clinic.

That is needed because, with the exception of HIV, Hawaii has seen an increase in STI’s.

“Of most concern to us at the Dept. of Health is there has been a rapid increase in syphilis over the past few years,” said Dr. Diana Felton, the DOH Communicable Disease Division Chief.

The number are not just rising for young men, where numbers are traditionally highest.

“In the past, women had very few syphilis infections, but we are seeing a rapid increase in women, especially women of child bearing age,” added Felton.

That is particularly concerning because syphilis can be passed from a pregnant woman to her fetus, what is known as congenital syphilis.

“The mom has syphilis and transfers it to the baby. The babies get very sick and can die, they can be stillborn, or end up with deformities and nerve damage,” stated Felton.

Hawaii had zero cases of congenital syphilis for years but jumped to a dozen cases in 2020 and around twice that amount by 2022.

The state found women testing positive were not receiving adequate prenatal care, because they might be houseless, in unstable housing, or faced cultural barriers.

Which is why the HHHRC mobile clinic stops at the women’s shelter in Kalihi, and has found its rapid STI testing is working.

“We’ve found positives with syphilis – not as much with the other STIs. Normally, we see more gonorrhea and chlamydia in the community,” stated HHHRC Executive Director Heather Lusk.

“If any results comes back positive, we carry medications and antibiotics to immediately treat patients if they are positive,” added Ramirez.

When it comes to syphilis, a simple shot of penicillin will take care of it for most people. Pregnant women have to be treated with three doses of the antibiotics.

Even though the treatment is simple, part of the challenge to stopping the spread of this STI, is people may have it for years but not even know it.

“Unlike other sexually transmitted diseases that require intimate contact, syphilis can have skin to skin contact in the first 2 stages. People should know, the stage 1 involves chancres, stage 2 is rash on the palms or torso, and by stage 3 you may not see the symptoms,” stated Lusk.

Left untreated syphilis can turn into a debilitating or even fatal infection.

The Department of Health plans to start up a campaign to encourage people and health care providers to do more STI checks, especially for pregnant women or those planning to get pregnant.

Meanwhile, in the fight against Hawaii’s surging syphilis rates, those on the front lines are now seeing more people interested in testing.

“Overall, there has been a high demand. Just the other day, we did 25 screening for syphilis out in the community,” added Lusk.

Please note: This content carries a strict local market embargo. If you share the same market as the contributor of this article, you may not use it on any platform.